Shark Breaches Near Surfers in San Francisco

It’s every surfer’s, paddleboarder’s, kiteboarder’s and pretty much anyone who spends a large amount of time in the ocean’s biggest fear: the great white shark.

It’s usually a pretty unwarranted fear driven by movies, pop culture, and sensationalized news media. Shark attacks are extremely rare. Though George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, told Reuters he expected more shark attacks in 2016 than in past years, the university still made it clear that beach-goers are still more likely to die from a collapsed sand castle than a shark attack.

That said, seeing the thing up close, let alone watching as a shark breaches, would put all those thoughts out of your mind pretty quick. Surfline’s surf cam at Ocean Beach in San Francisco caught quite a site Wednesday morning when, what appears to be, a great white shark breaches just beyond a line of unsuspecting surfers. The site is something out of Air Jaws from Shark Week and we don’t blame anyone who got out of the water after seeing that. I’d be first out.

Still, no one was hurt even though Surfline reports about 30 surfers remained in the water. The shark kept to himself after his display of gymnastics; just a reminder that he was in fact there.